Lawyer helped to establish the fact of living with the testator as one family

Civil law stipulates that not only family members of the deceased of one degree of kinship or another have the right to inherit, but also persons who lived with the testator as a family for at least five years before the opening of the inheritance (the fourth line of inheritance).

Thus, a lawyer of the Kovel Legal Aid Bureau, whose work is supported by DRC, was approached by Mr. Mykola, who said that for six years he had lived and run a joint household, and was connected by a common household with the testatrix, who was a single person. However, Mr. Mykola was not a member of her family (a relative).

After the woman's death, the man organized and incurred all the expenses related to her funeral, and also received a medical certificate of death, a certificate of the cause of death and a death certificate.

Intending to exercise his inheritance rights, Mykola turned to a notary, but was refused a certificate of inheritance, given that in order to register his inheritance, he had to apply to the court to establish the fact of living in the same family as the deceased testatrix.

The lawyer examined the case file and concluded that the relationship between Mr. Mykola and the deceased was typical of the relationship between family members, and the above circumstances indicate that they had lived together as a family until the inheritance was opened.

Therefore, Mykola is an heir of the fourth line of succession as a person who lived with the testator as a family for at least five years before the opening of the inheritance.

By the decision of the Kovel City District Court in case No. 159/687/24, the man's application was fully satisfied. Thus, the existence of a court decision establishing the fact of permanent residence of the heir with the testator at the time of opening the inheritance is the basis for obtaining a certificate of inheritance.

The free legal aid was provided in cooperation of the Western Interregional Center for Free Legal Aid with the Danish Refugee Council and funded by the European Union's civil protection and humanitarian aid.